WRENCH

Two good substantial letters, filled with personal and professional content. See the entries for Thorp and Wrench in the Oxford DNB. Both letters in brown ink in Thorps calligraphic hand. ONE (to Sir Evelyn Wrench): 2pp, 8vo. On cream paper with brown italic letterhead. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Signed ‘Peter’. Begins: ‘My dear Evelyn / We are going to make a great change in our way of life. For a long time I have felt that both physically & financially this house is beyond our strength.

43 + [1]pp., 8vo. Strapled ino printed card wraps. Internally in good condition, lightly aged, in aged and worn wraps with rusted staples. Over 24 pages the speeches by Henderson, Lloyd George and the Marquis of Londonderry are reported in full, as is that of the chairman, quoting letters he has received from Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Viscount Rothermere, General Smuts and several others. This is followed by a five-page list of guests, and a final seven-page 'Extract from "The Observer" of Sunday, Nov. 17, 1929', titled 'The Soul of a Newspaper'.

6pp., 12mo. Cyclostyled in purple ink on two loose leaves of 8vo paper (one printed on one side only, and the other on both sides). A facsimile of small handwriting, with five illustrations, including one captioned 'Steamer on the Hudson River' (the others a view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the river, a silhouette of a racing 'sulky' carriage, a steamer, and an ancient statue 'From Cyprus'). In fair condition, lightly-aged, with light rust marks from a paperclip. The second sheet, of four pages, ends abruptly, with a pencil note: 'concluding pages wanted'. The text begins: 'New York.

20pp., 12mo. On ten 26.5 x 21 cm numbered leaves, nine of them printed on one side only and the seventh with the text duplicated in error by being printed on both sides. Each leaf folded once, and the ten leaves stitched up to make a 21 x 13.25 cm booklet. The text written around a total of 20 illustrations by the author (including 'a covered market cart' in Oxford; 'Uncle Mervyn's Pajamas'; 'a Performing Elephant'; 'Rougemont', 'The Logan Stone', 'The Armed Knights & Enys Dodnan Rocks at The Lands End', the Clifton Suspension Bridge). In good condition, lightly aged and worn.

2pp., 12mo. Printed on one side of a piece of 21 x 26.5 cm paper, with central vertical fold dividing the pages. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed to 'My dear Children'. He begins by describing his attendance at the laying by Prince Albert Victor of 'the first stone of the New Bancroft Schools at Woodford', with lunch by the Drapers' Company. He soon changes tack: 'On the 14 I visited Buffalo Bills Wild West Show and you will I dare say like to hear what I saw there, better than what we did at Woodford.' He notes that he was 'mightily taken with the reality of the show.

Wrench was the son of a clergyman, and well educated and well connected (being presented to the Prince of Wales and staying at Chatsworth in his old age). His obituary in the British Medical Journal (27 April 1912), describes how, after service in the Crimea, 'he was transferred to the 4th Lancers, went to Madras with that regiment in the following month, and served with it during the whole of the Indian Mutiny. For his services in India he received the Indian medal and clasp for Central India. He returned to England in 1860, and married in 1861 his cousin, the daughter of Mr.

Wrench was the son of a clergyman, and well connected, being presented to the Prince of Wales and staying at Chatsworth in his old age. His obituary in the British Medical Journal (27 April 1812), describes how he went out to the Crimea in 1854. 'He had been gazetted Assistant Surgeon to the 34th Regiment in November, and joined it on its arrival in the Crimea. He served during the terrible winter of that year, and was present at the capture of the quarries, the successful assault on the Redan of June 18th, and the final capture of Sebastopol on September 8th, 1855.